BACKGROUND:With the development of tissue engineering technology, repairing large-area bone defects using tissue-engineered bone has become a hot spot.
OBJECTIVE:To introduce the bone tissue engineering seed cel s, cytokines, as wel as the characteristics of scaffold materials and their vascularization.
METHODS:With the key words of“bone tissue engineering, scaffold, vascularization”in Chinese and in English, respectively, a computer-based search of articles published from January 2000 to January 2012 was performed in CNKI and PubMed databases. Articles with the summary of bone tissue engineering, bone tissue engineering scaffolds and scaffold vascularization were included.
RESULTS AND CONCLUSION:The selection of seed cel s, application of cytokines, scaffold material performance and degree of vascularization in bone tissue engineering has an important influence on the repair of bone injuries. Appropriate seed cel s is the study foundation in bone tissue engineering, cytokines serve as catalysts, and scaffold materials with good three-dimensional structure can promote cel growth and proliferation, tissue ingrowth, osteogenesis and vascularization. Each scaffold has its own inadequacies, so the combination of a variety of materials can reach a combined effect to meet the clinical demand. In addition, it is important to actively seek new material preparation technology and improve the existing methods, in order to create a more excel ent scaffold. But the vascularization is stil a major test for bone tissue engineering. Current methods to promote vascularization of tissue-engineered bone have some defects. For examples, the use of growth factors to promote vascularization can lead to disease progression in patients with metabolic abnormalities during;microsurgical techniques for tissue engineering bone vascularization are easy to cause trauma and deformity at other parts, which is not conducive to the patient’s physical rehabilitation.

Objective To explore the effect of Activating Blood to Resolve Stagnation on the expression of CD34 and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) in rats with acute myocardial infarction. Methods 32 Sprague-Dawley rats were randomly divided into sham operation group (A, n=8), model group (B, n=8), Xuesaitong Injection + granulocyte colony- stimulating factor (G- CSF) group (C, n=8) and G-CSF group (D, n=8). Corresponding medicine was given to each group 3 hours after modeling, for 6 days. Pathomorphological changes were observed through HE staining, and the expression of CD34, VEGF and Ki-67 were observed through immunohistochemical staining. Results The expressions of CD34, VEGF and Ki-67 were higher in groups B, C and D than in group A (P<0.05), and were higher in group groups C and D than in group B (P<0.05). The expressions of CD34 and VEGF were higher in group C than in group D (P<0.05). However, there was no significant difference in the expression of Ki-67 between 2 groups (P>0.05). Conclusion The expression of CD34 and VEGF increases with Activating Blood to Resolve Stagnation method, which is superior to using G-CSF only. Activating Blood to Resolve Stagnation may play an important role in the treatment of acute myocardial infarction.

This study is to evaluate the therapeutic effect of fibroblast growth factor 21 (FGF21) on NAFLD in MSG-IR mice and to provide mechanism insights into its therapeutic effect. The MSG-IR mice with insulin resistance were treated with high dose (0.1 micromol.kg-1d-1) and low dose (0.025 micromol.kg-1d-1) of FGF21 once a day for 5 weeks. Body weight was measured weekly. At the end of the experiment, serum lipids, insulin and aminotransferases were measured. Hepatic steatosis was observed. The expression of key genes regulating energy metabolism were detected by real-time PCR. The results showed that after 5 weeks treatment, both doses of FGF21 reduced body weight (P<0.01), corrected dyslipidemia (P<0.01), reversed steatosis and restored the liver morphology in the MSG model mice and significantly ameliorated insulin resistance. Additionally, real-time PCR showed that FGF21 significantly reduced transcription levels of fat synthetic genes, decreased fat synthesis and promoted lipolysis and energy metabolism by up-regulating key genes of lipolysis, thereby liver fat accumulation was reduced and liver function was restored to normal levels. In conclusion, FGF21 significantly reduces body weight of the MSG-IR mice, ameliorates insulin resistance, reverses hepatic steatosis. These findings provide a theoretical support for clinical application of FGF21 as a novel therapeutics for treatment of NAFLD.

Based on the questionnaire survey among 10 Traditional Chinese Medicine medical institutions in Beijing , this paper found that 65 . 2％ of the medical staffs and 82 . 0％ of the patients agreed to include the medical expertise into Traditional Chinese Medicine service system;37 . 3％ of the medical staffs believed that there was a certain risk of relaxing access of Traditional Chinese Medicine clinics, and 38. 4％ of the patients showed that they would choose private clinics to see a doctor. Most medical staffs considered that the current risks of Traditional Chinese Medicine diagnosis and treatment focused on standardized use of toxic decoction pieces and overdose of drugs. Medical staffs were most concerned about the risk of"diagnosis and treatment" on the Internet, were least worried about the risk of "distribution". The clinic registration system of the Law of the People ' s Republic of China on TCM, the registration system of the processed concocted decoction pieces, and the unclear scope of diagnosis and treatment technology posed challenges to future risk management, and it need to adopt the following countermeasures to respond:establishing a new multiple and multi-level risk management mechanism, exploring differentiated supervision, perfecting the technical norms and application scope of Traditional Chinese Medicine diagnosis and treatment, establishing a special system for regulating Traditional Chinese Medicine health care services, and establishing and improving a flexible supervision and law enforcement model to protect the legitimate rights and interests of relatives.

Objective: To investigate and understand the causes of partial disorder in health care market of traditional Chinese medicine in recent years and put forward relevant countermeasures and suggestions. Methods: A multi-stage stratified random sampling method was used to investigate 410 medical staff and 535 patients in 10 traditional Chinese medicine medical institutions in Beijing. Self-filling questionnaires were used to obtain relevant data on their views on partial disorder of health care services in traditional Chinese medicine. Statistical software SPSS22.0 was used to analyze the data. Results: Firstly, both doctors and patients believed that "unclear functions of supervision department" was the main cause of some disorder in health care industry of TCM. Secondly, medical staff were more inclined than patients to think that the main causes were "lack of access threshold for institutions and personnel", "unclear functions of supervision department"and "lack of basis for law enforcement". Thirdly, 63.0％ of medical staff said that the legal system most needed to promote the healthy development of health care industry in traditional Chinese medicine was "industry standard system". Conclusion: According to the results of the survey, this paper holds that the healthy development of health care services in traditional Chinese medicine should be ensured by standardizing the supervision system of health care in traditional Chinese medicine, strengthening the construction of industry standards, establishing the self-regulatory mechanism of the industry, standardizing the media propaganda of health care in traditional Chinese medicine, and strengthening the ethical constraints of practitioners.

Different from Western medicine theory, Traditional Chinese Medicine knowledge is tacit knowledge, and the Traditional Chinese Medicine knowledge system also is a complete system independent from the Western medicine system. But the protection for Traditional Chinese Medicine knowledge nowadays still mainly stems from the Western intellectual property system. The current intellectual property system is in a dilemma in the protection of Traditional Chinese Medicine due to its limitations, and it urgently needs to build a special knowledge protection system that is specially applicable to traditional knowledge;while using genetic resources protection system and benefit sharing system of traditional knowledge from Convention on Biological Diversity to protect Traditional Chinese Medicine has its advanced nature and rationality. In the premise of clarifying the definition of "intellectual property right of Traditional Chinese Medicine", this paper proposed 5 countermeasures and suggestions, including establishing the legal content of Traditional Chinese Medicine intellectual property, promoting the legislative coordination of existing intellectual property law and the Law of the People' s Republic of China on TCM, strengthening the institutional coordination of the Law of the People' s Republic of China on TCM, the Law of Intangible Cultural Heritage and the Law of the People' s Republic of China on Drug Administration, promoting the institutional innovation at the local legislation level, and building a benefit sharing mechanism for the holders of Traditional Chinese Medicine knowledge.

Due to good mechanical properties and biocompatibility, tissue engineering scaffolds have become the vital method for repairing and regenerating articular cartilage defects. With the continuous development of tissue engineering technology, many scaffolds preparation and formation methods have been developed and tested in the past decade, however, the preparation of ideal regenerative scaffolds remain controversial. As load-bearing tissue inside the body joints, the matrix structure and cell composition of articular cartilage are hierarchical, and there are several smooth natural gradients from the cartilage surface to the subchondral bone layer, including cell phenotype and number, specific growth factors, matrix composition, fiber arrangement, mechanical properties, nutrient and oxygen consumption. Therefore, in the design of regenerative scaffolds, it is necessary to achieve these gradients to regenerate articular cartilage in situ. In recent studies, many new biomimetic gradient scaffolds have been used to simulate the natural gradient of articular cartilage. These scaffolds show different mechanical, physicochemical or biological gradients in the structure, and have achieved good repair effects. The related articles on tissue engineering for the treatment of articular cartilage defects were retrieved by searching databases with key wordsarticular cartilage injury, cartilage repair and gradient scaffolds. In this work,the structural, biochemical, biomechanical and nutrient metabolism gradients of natural articular cartilage were studied and summarized firstly. Then, the latest design and construction of articular cartilage gradient scaffolds were classified. Besides that, the material composition (such as hydrogels, nanomaterials, etc.) and the preparation process (such as electrospinning, 3D printing, etc.) of grandient scaffolds were further enhanced. Finally, the prospect and challenge of biomimetic gradient scaffolds in cartilage engineering are discussed, which provides a theoretical basis for the successful application of gradient scaffolds in clinical transformation.

Objective:To investigate the mechanism of levosimendan on acute kidney injury after cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) in rats.Methods:Twenty-five healthy adult male SD rats were randomly divided into three groups: control group ( n=5), levosimendan group ( n=10) and experimental group ( n=10). A cardiac arrest-cardiopulmonary resuscitation model was established using smothering method in the experimental group and levosimendan group. The levosimendan group was treated with levosimandan during and after resuscitation, while the experimental group was given equivalent volume of saline solution during and after resuscitation, and the control group was only given equivalent volume of saline without performance of CPR. The rats in the three groups were sacrificed at 6 h after resuscitation. The serum and kidney tissue samples were collected. Serum biochemical indicators [serum creatinine (Scr), blood urea nitrogen (Bun), interleukin-1β (IL-1β), interleukin-6 (IL-6) and tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α)] were measured. HE staining and Paller score were used to identify the degree of kidney damage. Apoptosis was estimated by TUNEL staining. Western blot was used to detect the expression levels of phosphorylation of extracellular regulated protein kinases (p-ERK). One-way analysis of variance was used to compare the mean values of normally distributed measurement data between groups. Comparisons between groups were performed using the least significant difference t-test. Results:Scr (85.02±1.31) μmol/L, Bun (7.36±0.13) mmol/L, Paller score (7.3±0.2), IL-1β (302.20±17.35) pg/mL, IL-6 (564.60±23.24) pg/mL and TNF-α (1346±83.73) pg/mL in the experimental group were significantly higher than those of the control group [(15.94±0.96) μmol/L, (2.95±0.18) mmol/L, (0.7±0.2), (7.27±0.44) pg/mL, (51.30±2.87) pg/mL, and (10.39±0.52) pg/mL] (all P<0.01). Compared with the experimental group, Scr (63.88±2.01) μmol/L, Bun (5.45±0.47) mmol/L, paller score (4.8±0.2), IL-1β (78.61±3.66) pg/mL, IL-6 (297.90±13.64) pg/mL and TNF-α (276.2±20.18) pg/mL were significantly decreased in the levosimendan group (all P<0.01). TUNEL staining showed that levosimendan could improve the apoptosis of renal cells ( P<0.01). The expression of p-ERK protein in the levosimendan group was significantly higher than that in the experimental group ( P<0.01). Conclusions:Lovosimendan could attenuate acute kidney injury following cardiac arrest and cardiopulmonary resuscitation via suppression apoptosis. The mechanism of levosimendan protective effect might be associated with activation of ERK signaling pathway.

Objective:To investigate the effect of apatinib on radiosensitivity of glioma cells U87MG and its potential mechanism.Methods:U87MG cells were divided into control group, apatinib group, radiation group and combination group treated with apatinib and radiation. The effect of different concentrations of apatinib (5, 10, 20, 40, 80 μmol/L) on cell proliferation was detected by CCK8 assay. The effect of apatinib on cell migration and invasion was detected by wound-healing assay and transwell assay, respectively. The effect of apatinib on cell radiosensitivity was detected by plate cloning assay, the cell apoptosis rate was detected by flow cytometry, and the protein expressions of Bax and Bcl-2 were detected by Western blot.Results:Apatinib significantly inhibited the proliferation of U87MG cells in a manner depended on the drug treatment time and radiation. Compared with the radiation group, the cell proliferation, migration and invasion in the combination group were inhibited much significantly ( t=9.857, 18.704, 4.197, P<0.05), so that the value of D0, Dq and SF2 of the combination group was lower, resulting in a radiosensitivity enhancement ratio (SER D0 ) of 1.3. Moreover, compared with the radiation group, the apoptosis rate of the combination group was increased, the expression of Bcl-2 protein was decreased, and the expression of Bax protein was increased ( t=16.187, 8.890, 5.222, P< 0.05). Conclusions:Apatinib inhibits cell proliferation, invasion and migration, induces apoptosis and increases radiosensitivity of glioma cells.

Objective:To investigate the effect of Asarinin on the survival time of transplanted heart after allogeneic heterotopic heart transplantation and to further verify the anti-immune rejection effect of Asarinin in spleen and peripheral blood.Methods:Using 64 Wistar rats as donors, 64 SD rats as recipients to establish the allogeneic heterotopic heart transplantation model in rats.After successful transplantation, 64 rats were use simple randomization divided into control group, cyclosporine A(CsA) group, Asarinin group and half CsA + half Asarinin group with 16 rats in each group.CsA group was given 5 mg/kg by gavage; Asarinin group was given 25 mg/kg; half dose group was given CsA 2.5 mg/kg+ Asarinin 12.5 mg/kg and the control group was given the same volume of normal saline by gavage.After administration for 1 week, half of them were used to observe the survival time.The other half of the rats were fully anesthetized with chloral hydrate, spleen and peripheral blood were taken.Half of the spleen was taken to observe the slices under the microscope.The other half of spleen was used RT-PCR to detect the relative expression of IFN-γ and IL-4.The expression of co-stimulatory molecules CD80, CD86 and CD40 in peripheral blood were detected by flow cytometry.Results:Survival time of transplanted heart was control group (8.4±0.9), CsA group (30.5±8.3), Asarinin group (16.5±4.3) and half-dose group (26.1±5.2) days.Compared with control group, survival time of heart transplantation became prolonged in all groups and the difference was statistically significant ( P<0.05). HE staining of splenic tissue showed that, as compared with control group, the injury of each group was alleviated.The relative expression of IFN-γ in spleen was control group (1.055±0.083), CsA group (0.396±0.038), Asarinin group (0.833±0.094) and half-dose group (0.862±0.104). The last three groups were lower than control group and the difference was statistically significant ( P<0.05). The relative expression of IL-4 in spleen was control group (1.429±0.234), CsA group (3.808±0.729), Asarinin group (2.209±0.306) and half-dose group (2.323±0.321). The last three groups all spiked as compared with control group and the difference was statistically significant ( P<0.05). The expressions of CD80, CD86 and CD40 in peripheral blood were control group (98.21±0.54), (85.78±0.89) and (96.36±0.66), CsA group (89.26±0.36), (56.86±2.32) and (88.11±1.61), Asarinin group (94.19±0.47), (79.01±1.12) and (87.86±1.67) and half-dose group (94.87±0.74), (80.81±0.98) and (89.71±0.97) respectively.The last three groups were lower than control group and the difference was statistically significant ( P<0.05). Conclusions:Asarinin can prolong the survival time of transplanted heart after allogeneic heterotopic heart transplantation in rats, inhibit the immune injury of spleen after allogeneic heterotopic heart transplantation in rats, decrease IFN-γ in spleen, increase IL-4 in spleen and inhibit the expression of peripheral blood costimulatory molecules CD80, CD86 and CD40.